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Comune. Oltre Il Privato E Il Pubblico (2010)

by Michael Hardt(Favorite Author)

3.79 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

8817038415 (ISBN13: 9788817038416)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Rizzoli

review 1: Some of what they say should be taken with a grain of salt, and I can easily nod along with the usual criticisms thrown at Hardt and Negri (though I would argue for some separation from "art and artist")... BUT, it is quite readable overall (even when you will shake your head in disagreement), even though sometimes too flowery. In particular the chapter concerning to the role of the metropolis in today's society and the power of encounters is vital reading to those interested in cities. (note, I haven't read the two predecessors in the trilogy.)
review 2: This was...more frustrating than anything, and that in spite of the fact that I agree with some of what they argue though I'm sure I don't understand all of it. It probably deserves a little more time and thou... moreght, but I haven't more. I also have not read Empire or Multitude, being more interested in the idea of the commons and how resistance is built.First, and this is a general rhetorical question, I'd like to know just who the hell the academic left keeps writing for, if not simply each other. To give 'tools' for the revolution via a curious twist on Kant and a reliance on Spinoza (who I do love, but I'm a nerd), along with a huge flirtation with biopolitics and a constant focus on 'the body'? It just shows their assumption of where the revolution is coming from, whatever they say. Like them, I believe that there should be no vanguards or intellectuals leading the way, their role is simply to contribute as a piece of a larger movement. But they surely are not contributing much if no one can understand what they are talking about. What is needed is dialog, and books of this kind cannot engage people working on the ground.And so I suppose it's not surprising that while they seem to make the not-entirely-logical leap of grouping all flexible informal work together, when they discuss its revolutionary potential they are really just talking about the privileged tiers. When they use what seems like a rather facile logic to claim that when being subject to violence proves that you have power? Well. I can only feel that they did not grown up anywhere half as violent as I did, though perhaps I am not understanding them correctly. You have no power until you make the decision to stand up to violence. I agree that capacity to resist is always there within us, but we do not always act upon it. And the transformative moment comes when we do so, not before. There is nothing honorable or powerful about getting the shit kicked out of you because you happened to look at someone the wrong way and couldn't run fast enough.And the wasp-orchid love? Made me want to vomit. The whole world does not have to aspire to some version of hedonistic polyamory to be a better place, though I'm happy to let those who chose that lifestyle do so and enjoy it.All that said, I did find their discussions of Foucault and Marx, Beck and Habermas, Zizek and Badiou to be interesting - but interesting is the operative word. I was intrigued by the new models of production, particularly the new commons of knowledge, capacity and creativity that this is creating (though I think it is too intangible, and elite). I agree on the vital importance of the idea that resistance is transformative and that people must be involved in their own liberation (but I don't think they have any idea how this happens).There is some good stuff in here, but I think you can better arrive at these understandings by actually organizing, and that experience will make a lot of what is written here, and how it is written, suspect. I am still working through what this can add to such experience, I suppose my recommendation to read it comes from the fact that I think that time spent doing it would be worthwhile. less

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